At the beginning of June 30th, the ISL2 tournament started as the whole foreign StarCraft world began the competition, struggling for the fame and money prizes. The ladder phase will last until July 31st.
The tournament started despite all the problems with the organization which occurred just right after the announcement. The clash between the iCCup administration and the actual founder - David "Game" Barr - ended with the latter retiring from the StarCraft scene and iCCup letting the event be hosted on the Abyss server with all its benefits. Fortunately for the community, it all ended with no damage being done to ISL2 itself.
So far, there are more than 200 participants but the number grows with every day. There are good players, there are casual players, each with their different goals, but as a whole creating a magnificent spectacle. It is worthy to mention that the tournament managed to gather a few well-known players that haven't been seen playing for a good while now, e.g. the Estonian v1ktor, the German Pidgin or the Ukrainian hanniGan., all doing really well. On the other hand, the tournament also includes top foreign players who have been very active in recent months, like fLip, dsaqwe, Bakuryu, Oya, ZaRaki, TriX, Ramms, FlaF or lure, all with a tremendous chance to advance to the next round.
Current ISL2 standings:
GosuGamers took the time to talk with fLip, current ISL2 ladder stage leader and asked him a few questions. It wasn't hard to get to the first place because it's not hard to get B rank. But towards the end getting first would be very hard, I'm sure... I just want to make top 12. There's a lot of good gamers here but not a lot of them put time in to rank up yet. So as for right now, I can't even find games. I am sure all the good players will start soon and make it more competitive. Asked about his biggest rivals fLip says: I heard quite a few players who were on top of the foreign scene will be back for ISL2, but I don't know who's coming back for sure so I can't really say. So far that have been playing I would say Sneazel, Trutacz, Choosy, FlaF.
Usually during this kind of event, a few problems and misunderstandings occur. The Polish player Fosken got banned due to having two registered ISL2 accounts, both in use, which is forbidden. The same happened to SneazeL's account but as he claims it happened for no reason. Both were allowed to play again, though.
It is also worth mentioning that there is a rumor among the ISL2 players which in case it turns out to be true may provoke a big eruption in the StarCraft community. The StarCraft legend, Draco, might be playing in the ISL2 tournament! It is not for sure, rather unlikely but still the atmosphere is electric.
Links
iCCup.com - Source
iCCup.com - Ladder
